F Ivan Demidov - SKA St. Petersburg, KHL (2024, 5th, MTL)

[CanadienShark]

He is obsessed , his past 25 posts are all talking about the habs , leave him be , it's not easy being a laughs fan let them get their little jabs in

Hopefully troll stomper takes him out, since it's pretty obvious what he's trying to achieve. Let's talk about the prospect and drown out the noise. I've liked what I've seen from him so far in the KHL and grown even more optimistic about his NHL potential.

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

That Demidov fella is pretty good and an interesting player.

Wonder if there’s a thread for him.

There is 3 . Consult the Michkov and versus thread for more material if needed .

 

[SlafySZN]

There is 3 . Consult the Michkov and versus thread for more material if needed .

Not participating in those.

 

[CanadienShark]

There is 3 . Consult the Michkov and versus thread for more material if needed .

Why do you live in this thread when you never, ever contribute to discussion about Demidov?

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

Why do you live in this thread when you never, ever contribute to discussion about Demidov?

That’s not true . I’ve been complimentary in several posts

Not participating in those.

Many are . Good for you though

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Demidov is rookie of the month!

Rookie of the month? 5 minutes TOI and 2 points next game

 

[Alex K]

So are you guys going to talk about Demidov in this thread?

Lol I haven't even realized that it's a Demidov thread untill your comment, thought I just misclicked and opened a Michkov one

 

[dendazen]

So I watch every SKA game and Demidov is just a stud, and it's subtle things really, how he handles the puck, positioning, sense of the game, and for the limited time he gets from the coach he gets to generate tons of offense. Now my question is really why Blackhawks didn't take him 2d, he would of been lethal on Bedard's wing

 

[Nico Cauzuki]

Montreal finished 28th overall, 28th overall, and 32nd overall in the last 3 seasons. They will most likely finish at the bottom of the league again this season.

I was surprised when habs fans thought Bergevin was an amazing GM. But it looks like they are brainwashed again with Hughes.

Hes a Devils fan and Hughes has done great rebuilding the team so far of course its easier to sell then to buy but for now we dont have any complaints besides maybe Reinbacher over Michkov

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

So I watch every SKA game and Demidov is just a stud, and it's subtle things really, how he handles the puck, positioning, sense of the game, and for the limited time he gets from the coach he gets to generate tons of offense. Now my question is really why Blackhawks didn't take him 2d, he would of been lethal on Bedard's wing

Teams reach for positional need, especially if that position is RD.

 

[Baksfamous112]

Team needs can be adressed at any time during the season OR the off-season.

The team's overall level of talent can rarely be increased significantly outside of the draft.

I can GUARANTEE you that if we drafted a Michkov every year, we'd have a star-studded roster in no time.

I disagree, especially for wingers. How many contenders have not been able to go all the way though because they lacked a 2C or #2-#3 RHD? High-end Centers and RHD are the hardest positions to fill and it's almost impossible to find one unless you draft them.

If Michkov played center, I wouldn't be arguing with you. I'm also not arguing the impact Michkov will have on Philly but if you're picking top 5 three years in a row and you take 3 wingers, then you're doing this rebuilding thing wrong.

I don't care about star-studded roster, I want a complete team with no glaring holes that will compete for championships. I'm not interested in regular season juggernaut where a couple of guys hit off 100+ points and then get booted in the first round like the Leafs.

 

[Baksfamous112]

Who said he’s a bust if he doesn’t make the team in his d plus 2 season ? Seems a bit straw man ish to me .

It has been referenced to in this thread. The "Maybe he'll become a top 4 D in this league" has been said multiple times already. I also remember around the same time last year we were hearing how Slafkovsky was a bust and never was to amount to anything and how we should have drafted Cooley instead.

Now obviously it'll be hard for Reinbacher to shut down the critiques since he's going to be out 5-6 months but the same people that were crying over the 10 games stretch where Cooley outproduced Slafkovsky are the same ones crying over picking Reinbacher instead of Michkov and are probably going to be the loudest ones pumping their chest if Reinbacher turns out to be the top pairing RHD Montreal drafted him for at 23-25.

Teams reach for positional need, especially if that position is RD.

Or center.

 

[TheKrebsCycle]

It has been referenced to in this thread. The "Maybe he'll become a top 4 D in this league" has been said multiple times already. I also remember around the same time last year we were hearing how Slafkovsky was a bust and never was to amount to anything and how we should have drafted Cooley instead.

Now obviously it'll be hard for Reinbacher to shut down the critiques since he's going to be out 5-6 months but the same people that were crying over the 10 games stretch where Cooley outproduced Slafkovsky are the same ones crying over picking Reinbacher instead of Michkov and are probably going to be the loudest ones pumping their chest if Reinbacher turns out to be the top pairing RHD Montreal drafted him for at 23-25.


Or center.

Your claim wasn’t that posters were saying “ Maybe he’ll become a top 4 D “. It was rather “ People are saying that he’s a bust if he doesn’t make the Habs lineup in his D+2 season “ . Fairly different statements/ claims .

 

[Baksfamous112]

Your claim wasn’t that posters were saying “ Maybe he’ll become a top 4 D “. It was rather “ People are saying that he’s a bust if he doesn’t make the Habs lineup in his D+2 season “ . Fairly different statements/ claims .

If you pick a guy #5 overall and people say he has a “chance” to become a top 4 D then yeah, that implies bottom pairing guy and that’s absolutely considered a bust.

Edit; And if there's one guy that Montreal can't afford to bust is Reinbacher. Not because of who was drafted after him but rather because they don't have anyone in the system that can potentially fill the top pairing RHD role and it's next to impossible to find one on the market without creating a massive hole elsewhere. Reinbacher busting would be much harder to get over it than a Demidov for example.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

Teams reach for positional need, especially if that position is RD.

This feels like where most draft mistakes get made. Teams rationalize picking for position when the BPA is a player that plays a position they don't need.

The biggest mistake here is assuming you know what your team is going to need or look like 3+ years down the road.

A bad example of this is the Devils picking Nemec 2nd overall in 2022 (though I think you can justify that he really may have been seen as the BPA). The Devils passed over the (IMO) superior prospect in Cooley because it felt like RD was a future need, not knowing we'd draft Casey in the next round and then sign Pesce. Now we have a logjam at RD but could really use a kid like Cooley to center our 3rd line. That's not to say Nemec isn't amazing, but if Devils management knew what the team looked like now, it makes me wonder if they would take Nemec again.

The history of taking defenseman in the top 5 of the draft is pretty ugly in the last 20 years (excluding last few years for because these kids are still developing). Of the 20 dmen drafted in the top 5 from 2004 to 2017, I count only 6-7 true #1 dmen, with 3 complete busts, 7 bottom to mid pair dmen, and 3 #2Ds. The recent history does look a bit more promising, but there's a lot up in the air.

The history is especially bad though when you look at team's drafting big (6'3+) dmen in the top 10. From 2004 - 2017, there were 24 dmen picked in the top 10 that were 6'3+:

13 of which I would consider busts or major disappointments
Griffin Reinhart
Boris Valabik
Dylan McIlrath
Brian Lee
Keaton Ellerby
Cam Barker
Jared Cowen
Ladislav Smid
Haydn Fleury
Karl Alzner
Zach Bogosian
Erik Gudbranson
Rasmus Ristolainen

And 12 who were good enough to be a top pair Dman for 5+ years
Erik Johnson
Darnell Nurse
Dougie Hamilton
Adam Larsson
Hampus Lindholm
Jacob Trouba
Noah Hanifin
Aaron Ekblad
Seth Jones
Mikhail Sergachev
Alex Pietrangelo
Victor Hedman

Even the group of successful players is pretty thin, with a lot of guys who had very short lived primes and who became liabilities by the time they were 30. I would say there's only 3-4 guys on this list who had 10+ year primes where they were top pairing defenseman. Hedman is the only Norris winner of the group.